Know Your Numbers
Replace 'I feel like' with data you're accountable to — for your business and your body.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 85%
Know Your Numbers is Wells' discipline of holding yourself accountable to data rather than feelings, across both business and health. On the business side it means tracking profit — not just revenue — so you don't spin your wheels on unprofitable work. On the personal side it means monitoring the health metrics, like her seven-and-a-half hours of sleep, that determine how well you function. She uses objective tools like an Oura ring to prevent self-deception. Honest numbers surface the hard decisions early, which she calls the real secret to profiting in life.
Origin
During her sabbatical Wells got curious about her own numbers and discovered her book business was far more profitable than her agency, which drove her decision to shut the agency down. She also found that her burnout was tied to health numbers she wasn't honest about — she thought she slept well until a sleep score proved otherwise. The practice became a core principle in her preparation phase.
Core principles
- 01Feelings lie; data holds you accountable — replace 'I think we were profitable' with exact figures.
- 02Numbers are not only financial — sleep, steps, and health metrics are just as load-bearing.
- 03Track the unique mix of numbers that lets you show up best for your team, family and self.
- 04Honest numbers surface hard decisions early, before rose-colored glasses cost you.
- 05Gamify tracking so accountability stays engaging rather than punishing.
How to run it
- 1
Separate revenue from profit
Look past top-line revenue to what you actually keep. Identify work that expands in cost and erodes the profit you assumed was there.
Pro tip A big team and big revenue can still mean spinning your wheels if profit is thin.
Watch out Influencer-style engagements with sliding scope quietly destroy fixed-price profit.
- 2
Track your health numbers
Identify the personal metrics that govern your performance — sleep, steps, hydration — and track them with an objective tool instead of self-report.
Pro tip Wear a tracker so you can't tell yourself you slept fine when you didn't.
Watch out Self-reported 'I feel like I slept well' is exactly the lie the data corrects.
- 3
Decide from the data
Use the honest numbers to make decisions, even the hard ones like letting people or clients go, because they serve the long term.
Pro tip Gamify the tracking to keep accountability engaging.
Watch out Knowing your numbers often forces painful short-term decisions — do them anyway.
In the wild
Wells needs seven and a half hours of sleep to function well. She used to tell herself she slept enough, but wearing an Oura ring and checking her sleep score every morning showed her she really hadn't — and shouldn't have watched an extra hour of Law and Order.
→ Objective accountability let her show up ready even on the busiest days.
When Wells finally ran her own numbers on sabbatical, she found her books were far more profitable than her agency, whose influencer campaigns kept expanding past their fixed price tags.
→ She transitioned out of agency work toward scalable content and product.
Common mistakes
Mistaking revenue for profit
Building a big team and big top-line while ignoring profit means you may just be spinning your wheels.
Trusting feelings over data
Saying 'I think we were kind of profitable' or 'I feel like I slept well' substitutes comfortable guesses for accountable facts.
Is it for you?
Best for
Entrepreneurs and self-optimizers willing to face objective data about money and health.
Not ideal for
People who find constant self-quantification anxiety-inducing rather than clarifying.
From the transcript
“know your numbers and be accountable to those numbers”
“the numbers I really needed to understand were related to my health and that was really at the heart of my burnout”
“you could build a company really big... make a lot of Revenue but if you're not making profit you could be just spinning your wheels”
From the episode
Tina Wells: The Elevation Approach, How to Achieve Work-Life Harmony While Still Crushing Your Goals
Tina Wells